The Southwest Calgary Ring Road project is the Gold Award recipient in the financing category of the 2016 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships (P3s).

The annual awards by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPP) honours governments and/or public institutions and their private sector partners who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in the establishment of public-private partnership.

The Southwest Calgary Ring Road is vital to the completion of the Calgary Ring Road corridor and consists of new and existing infrastructure – approximately 31 kilometers of new six and eight lane divided freeway including additional and auxiliary lanes. Fifteen kilometers of Priority New Infrastructure will be located on lands that were acquired from the Tsuut’ina Nation.

The design-build-finance and operate project had a total project cost of $1.4 billion and a $700 million value for money saving. The project achieved optimization through amortization of costs with the use of medium term financing – a unique feature for a P3 project. Risk allocation has been optimized to achieve significant pass down of risk allowing Alberta Transportation significant opportunities to achieve value for money.

The awards panel noted this project involved new and existing infrastructure as well as a unique set of constraints that required an optimization of risk transfer. Panelists also highlighted the innovative hybrid debt financing solution used on the project.

For all the winners, visit www.pppcouncil.ca